1. Field of Art
The present disclosure generally relates to the field of undercover operations and more specifically to using a mobile phone as an undercover device.
2. Background of the Invention
Police officers and other agents “operators” oftentimes conduct investigations in the field during the course of their duties. In many cases, these investigations require direct support and oversight at an administrative level. For example, an operator conducting an undercover sting in a high-risk situation may have a support team monitoring the operator directly in the field and interfacing with administration at an agency. Traditionally, the operator would use a radio-based covert listening system that can be hidden (e.g., under a shirt) or otherwise embedded (e.g., in or on an electronic device or object) to conceal its nature and protect operators' cover. The listening device would then transmit audio data back to the support team, which would relay data back to the agency.
However, with widespread publicity of listening devices in movies and the like, the physical nature of a given device can lead to its discovery or detection, which poses additional risks for the operators themselves. Additionally, traditional bugs have other inherent deficiencies when used in the field, such as requiring line-of-sight or physical proximity to a base station and the support team. Although some newer bug systems seek to provide sufficient concealability among other desirable features, they are oftentimes prohibitively expensive and yet, still fail to mitigate the above deficiencies. Furthermore, such systems are not rapidly deployable as they typically require support personnel other than immediate backup.